


Salute d'Amour

by Insomniac_with_dreams



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Baker Hunk (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Classical Music, Doesn't take place on the Titanic, Gay Keith (Voltron), M/M, Mutual Pining, New York, Period-Typical Homophobia, Titanic AU, ballerina lance, bed sharing, journalist keith, slowish burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 16:27:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20727236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insomniac_with_dreams/pseuds/Insomniac_with_dreams





	1. Chapter 1

This story would not exist if it were not for a tragedy, but then all good stories begin with a tragedy do they not? Our story begins with a young man running through the streets rain beating his body notebook shoved under his coat. It was the night of April 18th 1912, around 9:30 pm. And while most of New York would be inside on a rainy night such as this it seemed all were heading to the docks summoned by the long drawn out drone of a ship coming into harbor.

That ship being the _RMS Carpathia. _The ship that rescued the staggeringly low amount of passengers left after the tragedy of the once thought unsinkable _RMS Titanic. _An that my dear readers is how are story began and why the young man was racing to the docks. For this was the story of the century and the passengers on that ship were there for him to take it from.

The docks were far from empty as he arrived. A mass of people all gathered around standing in the rain murmuring and jostling trying to get a better look at the ship in front of them. He craned his neck trying in vain to see over two broad men in front of him. The ships horn went off again and people jostled more as a crew member pushed through them yelling to make way. People stepped aside forming an open path to the the side of the ship where the boarding bridge had come down. Three men were coming down the ramp. Two carrying the other who held onto there necks head bent hat covering his eyes. His feet were wrapped in multiple layers of bandages. 

People murmured as they carried him from the ship. He never raised his head and the young man watched feeling a morbid sense of longing to know what happened to him. But then he was gone disappearing into the rainy night. His eyes turned back as more people struggled off the ship. They looked haggard and haunted. The first wave of people looked well to do, some women in evening gowns and fur coats, the men in clothes looking more expensive then the apartment the young man lived in. But still they looked like they crawled from hell and they had.

The second wave were more casually clothed, many still in bed wear. A young man came down the ramp last of the second wave. He looked tired and cold beyond repair, flinching as the rain hit his shoulders and rolled down his brown hair. He was still in his sleeping clothes baggy and stained, yet around his neck hung a pair of ballet shoes tide at the back and dangling. They were the only thing he carried.

He looked out in the crowd exhaustion filling his eyes as if the thought of walking through the people below him made him sick. Their eyes met and the young man was surprised to see that they were blue, expecting brown. Then they were gone, fleeting.

A hand came down on his shoulder making him jump,

" What are you doing out here Keith?" He looked up at his brother who stood tall hair plastered to his forehead. Keith smirked at him,

" I could ask you the same thing." Takashi smiled not looking down at him,

"Adam figured it be good to offer aid to these people." Keith nodded his eyes once again falling on the blue eyed boy who was looking around lost.

"Well that makes sense I guess. You have enough money to by the ship and the docks, might as well use it for charity." The boy was being pushed to the edge of the crowd glaring half halfheartedly at the shoving people.

" You probably won't get any stories until the day after tomorrow at the soonest. Things are just to hectic right now." Takashi scooped his hair back out of his face and pulled his watch out of a pocket in his coat, glancing at it before pocketing it again. "I should have brought an umbrella." Keith looked up at him,

" Why didn't you?" Takashi smiled again,

" I thought you'd bring one." He patted Keith's shoulder and moved away. Keith made a face at his back before shivering and huddling against the rain he knew Takashi was right, but he still would love to get a story tonight.

" Young man." He turned at the authoritative voice. Standing behind him was an officer and the blue eyed boy.

" This young man says you are here for him is that true?" Keith's eyes flicked to the boy who sent him a pleading look.

" Yeah, uh, yeah I'm his.." 

" My sisters husband." The boy said his voice was smooth with the hint of an accent Keith couldn't place. He nodded latching on to that,

" Yes my lovely uh, Mabel." The boy raises an eyebrow at him. " She was so worried. She'll be so revealed to see you. Just like I am." He reached forward and wrapped both arms around the boy. He tensed up against Keith before wrapping his around Keith.

The officer made a satisfied noise and moved on. When he was out of earshot Keith let go of the boy.

" Sorry about that." The boy smiled at him wiping his wet hair from his face.

" No it was fine. Thank you for playing along. I didn't know where they would have taken me if i hadn't thought of that sooner." Keith nodded feeling a little awkward now. 

" I uh, whats your name?" 

"Lance. Yours?"

"Keith." He held out his hand and Lance shook it. Keith cringed inwardly at the cold clammy feeling of his skin. As he let go Lance shivered and Keith started,

" Here." He shucked of his jacket keeping the inside dry and wrapped it tightly around the other boy. He dropped his notebook and sighed as he bent down to pick it up shaking the water off of it.

" Oh, I'm sorry." Lance said looking down at the ruined notebook.

" Ah, no its fine. I have a bout a billion at home." Lance nodded burrowing into the jacket. 

" Well uh, I wish you the greatest of luck." Keith said tucking the soggy notebook under his arm and shoving his hands in his pockets. He turned and walked away towards the gate to the harbor. A hand grabbed his elbow. He turned and saw Lance standing behind him looking down rain water dripping off his hair and nose.

" I don't have anywhere to go." Keith swallowed, looking back and forth between Lance and the street outside. Then he looked back at the ship lights still aglow, smoke stacks casting long shadows across the people on the dock.

" Okay. You can stay at my place. Come on."

This my friends is where our story really begins and where I say my goodbyes for now.


	2. Bach Cello Suite No.1 in G

Keith couldn't help the but feel slightly uncomfortable as he unlocked the door of his apartment. He was letting in a stranger. He paused his hand on the handle and looked back at Lance. He was looking down periodically wiping the water dripping down his nose. He shivered. Keith let out a breath it fogged in the air and he knew any longer spent out here would result in hypothermia.

He pushed open the door glaring at the stack of notebooks sitting precariously on a side table in the entry hall. Daring them to fall. He shuffled in and held the door open for Lance. It had a habit of closing by it's self.

Lance bit his lip and stared into the house around Keith. Keith mentally kicked himself. Here he was worrying about a stranger coming into his home, when said stranger had just spent the last four days on the freezing decks of an overcrowded ship, after disaster. 

" I'm not going to do anything to you if that makes you feel any better." He winced at his words as they left his mouth. Lance looked up at him his lips pale against his brown skin. " Whoa. Uh, you need to come in and get warm." He reached out taking Lance's hand, it was icy. He pulled him in. Slipping off his wet shoes and pushing his wet hair harshly back. He stripped his socks to. He helped Lance take off the sodden coat before showing him into the small over crowded living room. He sat Lance down on the couch and stirred the sleeping embers of the fire until he woke them up again and fed logs into it. He ran up the stairs to his bedroom and grabbed a blanket and a set of his own pajamas.

He hurried back down. Lance was kneeling in front of the fire slowly turning the ballet slippers in his hands. Keith slowed his gait and walked almost reverently into the room.

" I brought you clothes, and a blanket." Keith said coming forward and laying the items by him. Lance smiled at him. A slight quirk of his lips. Keith offered him one in exchange.

" I'll go up stairs and you can change." Keith retreated going back up to his room, stripping out of his own wet clothes. He sighed as he slipped into the warm clean ones.He glanced at himself in the mirror as he brushed his fingers through his hair. This was not at all how he thought his trip down to the docks would have gone. He looked over his shoulder at the soggy notebook on his bed. He was going to have to rewrite the entire Murray story. It had been a nightmare to write and he really wasn't looking forward to writing it again.

He hopped down the stairs and stopped before hopping down into the landing,

"Are you, uh, decent?" He waited until Lance let out an affirmative noise. He came down into the living room and smiled at Lance who was standing by the fire twisting the hem of the shirt in his hands.

" Are you hungry? I already ate but I could find you something." Lance began to shake his head before reluctantly nodding.

" I'm honestly more cold then anything?" Keith nodded. While the color had come back into his lips he still was shivering. Keith motioned for him to follow him and they walked into Keith's kitchen. He lit the lamp on the table. He didn't live where they had electricity. Lance looked around as the lamp did it's best to light the room. There wasn't really anything to look at. A few shelves with a few boxes of this or that, a stove that barely worked and a small icebox that remained empty ninety percent of the time.

Keith pulled out a chair and offered it to Lance.

" I'll make tea." He moved to the stove coaxing it to work and filling a kettle with water. He pulled down the pot he kept tea in and settled awkwardly across from Lance. Lance was looking anywhere but at him and he found himself floundering for conversation. He opened his mouth to say something, anything. He was saved by the kettle whistling. They both jumped and Keith got up and quickly removed the kettle. He fixed two cups of tea in two chipped tea cups and slid one to Lance.

They sipped at the hot beverage in silence. Keith shivered as he drank feeling the tea all the way to his toes. Lance copied the motion. A mouse chewed away in the wall and an occasional car passed on the streets outside.

" I wanted to thank you. You didn't have to do this for me. At all. So thank you." Lance spoke quietly looking down at his cup. Keith smiled a little at him,

" It's fine. It's horrible what happened, I'm happy to do it. I'll help until you can figure something out." Lance finally looked at him his blue eyes looking dark in the dim light. Dark navy pools that reflected the flickering flame in the lamp perfectly.

Keith felt his heart beat faster and his stomach fall at the same time.


End file.
